For security reason, I'm currently running my 8.1.7.4 database instances on
many solaris disksuite 4.2 mirrors under solaris 2.6. We're moving to
solaris 9 soon, but we don't have the money for an hardware raid box or a
new server, so I guess we'll have to stick with software RAID for the
moment. This is an old sun UE 450 with old Fast Wide SCSI II internal disks.

Instead of using 8 2-disks mirrors, I'm planning to create a BIG mirror,
consisting of two 8-disks striped volumes. And put all the datafiles on it.
I will keep 2 "plain" disks on separate controlers to duplex my online redo
on.

Is this a waste of time or can I expect better performance than my current
setup ? Of course I could try this but it's a lot of work and I don't have a
spare server.

Also, it seems like solaris 9 is a lot better performing than 2.6 with
regard to it's file system. Is this true ?

Thanks

P.S.: Please don't tell me to get a better server, a better disk subsystem,
etc... we're trying NOT to close the shop here, so we do NOT have money and
have to do our best with what we've got.

Anno Domini 8-2-2005 19:22, G Dahler sprak aldus:

since 8.1.7.4 is no longer supported as of 1-1-2005?

I think, however you should get better performance with the RAID 0+1
configuration you suggested. It should make a difference if a tablespace
or datafile is accessed from many disks at once or just one or two. Have
no experience with Solaris; I use Tru64 UNIX and Windows for Oracle
databases.

You could consider Linux on Intel. Is much cheaper.